How Would You Handle This Student Success Challenge?

Most of my colleagues who work in what is now called the “student success” field are well familiar with the challenges of trying to improve college student performance for recent high school graduates who are: 1) under prepared for college; 2) unmotivated (or so we think—at least towards academic work); 3) lacking in vocational purpose and direction; 4) immature; 5) economically disadvantaged; and 6) disproportionately male.

But what if you worked in a country where all of those factors were identical except the students’ socioeconomic status. Let’s say instead of being low or lower SES, they were of high SES, highly advantaged financially. They have no worries about financing college. It is free to all citizens of this country, totally free and depending where you are enrolled may also provide a stipend. And because you are high SES you already have a post college job promised that will assure you financial security for a lifetime.

In this country there are highly motivated and successful students, especially in disciplines like engineering, business, law (where law is an undergraduate major), and pharmacy. And they exist side by side with students who are identical in all respects except they are unmotivated towards their presence in university and its requirements. These students, most notably men, are described as having an overriding interest in very fast and expensive cars, which they already own. And the cost of fueling these machines is negligible.

This country is small. It has several highly valuable natural resources, which much of the rest of the world wants, needs, and purchases. There are only approximately 300,000 citizens in this country who have all the privileges, advantages and powers that a nation state can convey on its citizens. In this case those advantages include free education anywhere in the world, housing, utilities and other subsidies.

Approximately 1,700,000 people from all over the world come to this country for employment to perform the needed skills and labor that either the citizens are not professionally able to provide or do not wish to provide.

There is only one public university in this country. There is also a military institution funded by the government to prepare only men for service in the army. And this country is opening next year a college for those men who wish to become police officers. And a Texas community college (Houston Community College) operates the one community college in this country.

This fascinating, extremely important geopolitically, wealthy country is Qatar. It has the highest per capita wealth in the world. It has a construction boom unequaled in the developed world.

I have just visited there, with my wife, Dr. Betsy Barefoot, as part of my role as what my non-profit organization calls an “Institute Advisor” for Qatar University, which is a participant in our Foundations of Excellence process (FoE). FoE is a voluntary, comprehensive, institution-wide, self study of everything the institution does for its students in their first year. The goals of the FoE process are to: 1) produce an action plan to improve first-year student learning and retention; 2) execute that plan. Qatar University has done an outstanding job on developing such a plan and is now moving into the phases of executing that plan.

While I was on the campus I was asked repeatedly what I would do if I were there full time and charged with trying to address this problem of lack of motivation of Qatari male citizens. When I was asked this I first turned the question around on my questioner to find out what they were attempting to do; and then I would offer suggestions.

So there you are. This is a university that has an extraordinarily multi-national faculty and staff. About 20% are from the US and Canada; the remainder are from the Middle East, the UK, Europe and the Far East. As a US citizen you will be able to work abroad US tax free and QU will provide you with a generous salary.

Again, there you are. What would you do to motivate students with these characteristics? How would you do it?

I grappled with this intellectual challenge and still am in that process. But here are some of the options I considered:

Make extensive use of outstanding undergraduate students as role models in every area of university life. We call such students “peer leaders”; and we know from 50 years of research in the US that the greatest influence on students is the influence of other students—and hence the argument to have our most outstanding students influencing the most impressionable students: entering students.

Teach leadershipand practice leadership. Embed the study of leadership in the curriculum in a new field known as leadership studies and simultaneously provide students co-curricular opportunities to practice leadership.

Communicate with families: all traditional aged students live with their parents. The family influence in this society is huge (much greater than ours). Use a variety of mechanisms to reach out to families: orientation, parents day’s/weekends; family focused webpages; family newsletter, etc.

Integrate military service into higher education. If the government could be persuaded, develop an a counterpart to the US concept of ROTC, Reserve Officer Training Corps, so students can simultaneously be given a experience that provides discipline and direction while simultaneously making normal progress towards a bachelors degree.

Offer opening rituals and ceremonies in which it is stressed that it is in the nation’s interest for more of its citizens to become higher educated so not all the key jobs (other than governing itself) have to be outsourced.

Offer a comprehensive student success course in which students are introduced to the purposes of a university (for motivation purposes) and the notion that pursuing university education status is a patriotic duty.

Expose new and continuing students to outstanding younger alumni who can model the attitudes and self directed purpose we are trying to achieve in these new students.

Back to my original question: what would you do? How would that compare to what you are currently doing to increase motivation in students who are US citizens?

Working with the Gardner Institute provided a structure to look at institutional effectiveness. This structure was more encouraging, and less threatening, than evaluative agencies and brought people together from across the campus, all committed to the same task - new student success.— Mark Lange, Former FoE Liason - Holyoke Community College

This has been an incredible (and quick) endeavor and an eye-opener in many ways. What is most rewarding to me, at the moment, is to have so much information in one place and accessible to so many people. This takes us way beyond anecdotal conversations. THANK YOU…for helping us get our data uploaded, assembled, reloaded, corrected, and available to our users.— Regina Shearer, Associate Vice President for Student Success, Rivier University

Based on my experiences with the Institute, I can assert with assurance that FoE is a highly structured but very flexible process that has 'evolution' as its signature characteristic. An institution that participates in FoE exemplifies what Peter Senge calls "a learning institution."— Roberta Matthews, Former Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs - Brooklyn College

The FoE process was transformational for MCCC. It helped us bring all stakeholders together and have a dialogue that has brought real changes to our institution. As we journey on, we are now very mindful and intentional in thinking about student success.— Dr. Steady Moono, Vice President for Student Affairs - Montgomery County Community College

Our FoE Philosophy Statement served as the basis for the development of our Quality Enhancement Plan for SACS and for the improvements we have made to new student orientation, advising, and retention.— Debbi Clear, Vice President of Instruction & Student Services - Virginia Highlands Community College

We've been in the implementation process for a short time and have achieved great momentum. In a time of 'lean' operating, FoE is the perfect tool to help institutions achieve efficient and effective operating goals while adding value to the student experience.— Shawn A. Anderson, Dean of Student Services - Minnesota State Community and Technical College

The John N. Gardner Institute is a group of people that have an extremely high level of expertise in education. They know education - they don’t just know the software or a program - they know all the touch points needed to craft a good system that that is going to work for our students.— Stuart Benkert, Director of Complete College Tracking and Assessment, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga

I am proud to say that our work is still going on almost four years later, and the focus on what is most important, the student, is still a large part of our planning for new programs and curriculum redesign.— Amy Baldwin, Instructor of English - Pulaski Technical College

The John N. Gardner Institute has provided us an opportunity to really have candid conversations, as well as connect with other like-minded schools and senior staff. Student success is extremely important to our institution. With JNGI, you really get the idea of how we are all on the right path.— Sasha Heard, Student Affairs Manager, Allied American University

The FoE self study helped us to identify initiatives that were working well, pin-point gaps in our services, and set goals for continuing to improve our efforts in meeting the needs of our students.— Amanda Yale, Associate Provost for Enrollment Services - Slippery Rock University

We maximized our efforts by linking FoE with the Higher Learning Commission's AQIP system for accreditation. Through this link, efforts related to the first year had instant cross-functional commitment and were viewed through a continuous improvement lens.— Ali O'Brien, Asst. Vice President for Educational Affairs - College of Lake County